Beekeeping Today Podcast

On today's episode, we talk with Dwayne Combs about his business Beehive Monitoring USA and the line of beehive sensors, by a Slovakian company manufacturing the HiveHeart monitor. Dave's business is the US distributor of the equipment they produce. The device he sells is called HiveHeart 3.0. You can obtain the HiveHeart internal monitoring device and one of 2 levels of scales you can also purchase. With these come an App for your phone. The Hive Heart uploads the data it collects from your hive to your phone, then your phone sends that data to the Bee Hive Monitoring servers in the cloud. You data is analyzed and available to you in easy to view graphs or downloadable as individual reports. All of the data is useful to the beekeeper to make informed management decisions on the health and productivity of their monitored colonies. Additionally, it will help reduce the number of visits a hive will require, will warn of impending problems, and prepare the beekeeper for what needs to be done on the next visit. Duane also discusses the challenges of being a beekeeper in the Southwest in an area where Africanized Honey Bees (AHB) are still an issue. We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beehive Monitoring USA - https://beehivemonitoringusa.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We're taking the week off to prepare for our July 4th Holiday with our families. We hope you enjoy this special from our first year of the podcast where we introduced many of you to Dr. Jim Tew. Jim cohosts the Honey Bee Obscura podcast with Kim and is a long time contributor to our lead sponsor, Bee Culture. We hope you have a safe and enjoyable long holiday weekend. We invited (mostly retired) Dr. James Tew to the podcast to share with us some of his beekeeping experiences and observations. Jim brings an insightful and sometimes humorous perspective from how he got into bees... and how a bee once got into him! Jim has retired from the Ohio State University Ag Extension in Wooster, Ohio and still lives and cares for his own bees in the area. Jim has several books on beekeeping available on Amazon, can be seen regularly on Bee Culture's Kim and Jim Show, and monthly in Bee Culture. Kim wraps up the show with his Inner Covered. We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

First up on today's podcast, Jeff talks with Maya Ajmera, CEO of the Society for Science who along with the pharmaceutical company Regeneron, host an annual science contest for high school seniors. Maya talks with Jeff about the contest and what it takes and means to be a finalist! Next Kim and Jeff talk with Amara Orth. Amara lives on her family farm in Glenwood Iowa, near Council Bluffs. Her parents have 25 colonies and her grandfather has a couple thousand colonies. She's been around bees her whole life. Amara graduated from high school this spring and will be attending Stanford college this fall. A couple of years ago, when working bees with her grandfather, he said something that got her attention….the bees sound different today, and that got her to thinking about the sounds of bees. Amara set up a series of listening devices on her 25 hives to eavesdrop on her bees so she could identify the vibroacoustic patterns she detected in each hive. She measured the sounds and vibrations in each hive and developed a mathematical model that analyzed colony health with an accuracy of 92%. She entered her research in Regeneron Science Talent Search Awards program and placed 9th out of several thousand entries, earning a $50,000 award. Listen in today and find out more about the sounds of colony health. We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Explanation of Amara's Project on YouTube - https://youtu.be/s0746LCNZkA Regeneron Science Talent Search - https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/ Society for Science - https://www.societyforscience.org Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Kelly Kulhanek recently moved to Pullman, WA., where she has started her work there on assisting with the Asian Giant Hornet research. In addition to this she is working with the research on indoor wintering of honey bees for commercial beekeepers. All of this will help her with her new role as extension specialist for WSU. In today's episode, Kelly talk with Kim and Jeff about the current status of the Asian Giant Hornet in Washington State and the steps state beekeepers can do to prepare for the possibility this of invasive pest. Additionally, WSU has received multiple grants to research all the aspects of the indoor wintering of honey bee colonies in refrigerated warehouses. Kelly is working on this research. So far, the results have demonstrated a clear benefit, so much so, many large commercial beekeepers have already started building and renting warehouse space to house their bees over the winter. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Kelly. This week also kicks off Pollinator Week. Pollinator Partnership worked to get the week designated to celebrate all the benefits pollinators bring the environment. Go to their website to learn how you can participate in the week long activities. Finally, this show is the start of the fifth year of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Thank you, our listeners, for following the podcast on your platform of choice. We're here each week for you. We have a great season in store. If you know of a guest or have a topic in mind for an episode, let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: WSU Hopkins Bee Lab - https://labs.wsu.edu/hopkinslab/ Pollinator Partnership Pollinator Week - https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Seven years ago, father and son set out to redesign the way honey is harvested from bee hives. There must be a way, they reasoned, to get the honey from the comb without disturbing the bees and then bottling the honey directly from the hive. They placed their idea on Indiegogo and early orders exceeded all expectations when they topped over $12.5 million US dollars! Today, after over 50 iterations of the product, Flow Hive has established itself as a solid name in honey production for the small scale beekeeper. In this episode, we talk with Cedar Anderson, who alongside his father, invented the concept of the Flow frame, super and hive. We talked with Cedar's father and co-inventor in the spring of 2021. Today, Cedar talks about the origins of the Flow Hive, the changes they've made and how as a company, they are now giving back to the planet through their multiple pollinator programs and research support. One program they are working to expand is Billions of Blossoms. It's a project dedicated to planting trees that bees can use. Not just honey bees, but all kinds of bees. So far this year they have planted a half million trees and another half million are planned across the United State, Australia and other countries For the Flow Hive itself, they've expanded community support by ramping up their instructions, added to their YouTube sits and now have a regular call in program so you can talk to the folks who actually make and use these hives, in person, and ask them the questions you have with your equipment. Listen to our talk with Cedar and hear for yourself all the projects they've developed to make the world a better place, one bee at a time. You might even consider a Flow Hive! We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Flow Hive Homepage - https://www.honeyflow.com Billions of Blossoms - https://www.honeyflow.com/pages/blossoms Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week we talk with professional bike racer, Maghalie Rochette, from Quebec, Canada. She is good. Really good. Maghalie came in 2nd in the Canadian National Championships, September, 2021; Is three-times Canadian Cyclocross Champion, three-times Pan American Cyclocross Champion and a Cyclocross World Cup winner. She has her sights set on greater goals this season! But what, you may be asking, does this have to do with beekeeping? Good question! We all know we beekeepers are a generally thought of as being a bit odd to most other people. Admittedly, most people think anyone who willingly puts their bare hands into a box of thousands of stinging insects, is, let's say, eccentric. That distinction is something we also wear as a badge of distinction and honor. We we see the beauty in the honey bee and the hive. So Kim and Jeff thought, let's turn this back on itself. Who are the beekeepers who you would never guess are beekeepers? Recently, they talked with the NYPD Official Beekeepers, Darren Mays. He wears a badge and pistol along with his smoker and hive tool. Today's guest, Maghalie is paid to ride bikes fast and she wears lycra to work. Not your typical beekeeper. Listen to today's episode to learn how beekeeping and bike racing are actually quite complementary. Anyone can be a beekeeper! We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Maghalie's Website - http://www.maghalierochette.com Maghalie's Podcast, "Fever Talk" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fever-talk/id1532785341 Maghalie's Sponsor, Rapha, feature on her - https://www.rapha.cc/us/en_US/stories/meet-maghalie-rochette Jeff's Swarm on Memorial Day - https://mybroodminder.com/share/hive/248b0c30108842b583d91ffadb1336f9 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Imagine responding to every emergency call into 911 about swarms in New York City - across all five boroughs, including Times Square! Well, imagine no more because, today's guest, Darren Mays was the Official beekeeper for the New York City Police Department up until he retired. Darren worked nights as a regular police officer, responding to the calls all police officers responded to. Robberies, domestic disputes, prisoner transports, and everything else. In the morning, he'd go home to sleep, but he was always on call for the 911 for honey bees and swarms… When he'd get the call, he'd head back into the city, collect the swarm, and take them home. All in a day's work! When you think about swarms and honey bees, it is natural to think of green fields, apple trees and blue skies. Not… a security camera on 42nd and Broadway on Times Square in bustling New York City! This was Darren's world. It is said that New Yorkers have seen and are used to seeing, everything. But not honey bee swarms. These stopped people in their tracks and caused quite the commotion. Darren would arrive and with the calmness of an experienced beekeeper (or movie cop hero) save the day by removing the bees letting the city continue in its day. We hope you enjoy listening to Darren's experiences as the official NYPD beekeeper as much as we do! Also in today's episode, Ed Colby returns with a story from his book, "A Beekeeper's Life: Tales of a Beekeeper", titled Granny. Granny wants bees on her land… but she off the beaten track. It's a conundrum that only Ed could get himself into! We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Can you imagine the difficulty in trying to work a standard Langstroth hive when sitting in a wheelchair? Or how about working bees while blind? These are just two of the handicaps that Justin Ruger is working on so that people with handicaps like these can work bees. Justin is in a wheelchair so he knows what he's talking about. His group is a 501 3c charitable program, working to get training apiaries in every state to accommodate teaching handicapped people how to keep bees, no matter their condition. These apiaries will have all the requirements needed for these people. Along with University in Pennsylvania, he is developing techniques for teaching, building specialized equipment and developing standards for state programs. This way, beekeeping organizations and equipment manufacturers can use the specifications and recommendations as guidelines to providing the right location setup and the right equipment for establishing their own accessible apiraries Check out their web site for even more information on Accessible Beekeeping. And share what you find with everybody you can. Also in today's episode, Kim returns with a new Bee Books Old and New, presented by Northern Bee Books. This week, Kim reviews, The Principles of Bee Improvement, by Jo Widdicombe We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Accessible Beekeeping.org - https://www.accessiblebeekeeping.org Accessible Beekeeping Survey - https://www.accessiblebeekeeping.org/survey Accessible Beekeeping Podcast - https://www.accessiblebeekeeping.org/podcast "Henry Meets A Bee" series of children books - https://www.hippiechickapiary.com/books Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this replay from the Beekeeping Today Podcast Archive Super, we talk with Dr. Tom D. Seeley. We originally talked with Tom in 2019. Dr. Seeley is a Horace White Professor in Biology at Cornell University where he teaches courses on animal behavior, specializing in understanding the social life of honey bees. His scientific research focuses on the phenomenon of swarm intelligence, which is defined as the solving of cognitive problems by a group of individuals who pool their knowledge and process it through social interactions. Tom joins Jeff and Kim in this episode to discuss bee hunting (aka: bee lining). He also delves deeper into the topic of his article in the January 2019 Bee Culture on Darwinian Beekeeping. Tom is a author of several books related to honey bee biology and behavior, including: The Wisdom of the Hive, 1996 Honeybee Democracy, 2010 Following The Wild Bees: The Craft and Science of Bee Hunting, 2016 The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild, 2019 In the podcast, Tom references his video on the topic of Bee Hunting. You can find it On YouTube. We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Hunting: Finding A Wild Colony of Honey Bees - https://youtu.be/-fCwoZwPilo Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Drs. Michael Simone-Finstrom and Dr. Frank Rinkevich, are research entomologists at the Baton Rouge Honey Bee Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA. They have completed an extensive set of tests in commercial beekeeping operations on mite resistance, overwintering, honey production and virus loads of the varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) P0L Line of honey bees bred there since the 1990s. The line, called the Pol-line is drawn from the original line to be used as pollinator bees, have as a basis for mite resistance, the VSH trait, where mites in brood cells are removed by nurse bees before they are able to complete development. Over the season these bees were subjected to moving to almonds, and from almonds to other pollination jobs or to honey production areas in MS, CA, ND and SD to sample a wide variety of environments. The results are definitely encouraging. Listen to learn more! Next on their agenda? Getting these bees into the hands commercial beekeepers so they can take advantage of the money saving, and honey bee saving attributes of these bees. Also in this episode, Jeff meets up with Dr. Dewey Caron and receives an update from on Dewey's PNW Honey Bee Survey. Finally, before the main interview with Drs Simone and Rinkevich, Kim delivers his review of Brother Adam's book, "Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey", presented by Northern Bee Books. This is one packed episode! Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Baton Rouge Bee Lab - https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/baton-rouge-la/honeybeelab/ Pol-Line Honey Bee Research Paper - https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=317665 Pacific Northwest Bee Survey & Results - https://pnwhoneybeesurvey.com Kim's Book Review, "Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey" by Brother Adam - https://amazon.com/dp/0907908373 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

On today episode, we welcome Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk ('retired' from the University of Montana) and Rob Seccomb to talk with us about the Bee Health Guru app and the new Commercial Beekeeper Course they are developing in partnership with the SAVE Farm program in Kansas. SAVE (Service Member Agricultural Vocation Education) received funding from USDA NIFA under a subcontract from the SAVE Farm in Manhattan, Kansas. For this three-year project, Jerry and Rob will produce online training resources for members and veterans of the military centered on Commercial Beekeeping, while Kansas State Department of Agriculture will provide the hands-on-training, including getting a CDL and a Certification for Loader Operation. The genesis of the program started with Fort Riley's Warrior Transition Battalion's occupational therapists. The SAVE program offers transition from the security and comradery of the military to the serenity and immersion offered by farming, avoiding what can be a debilitating and often dangerous period following discharge. Join us as we learn about the SAVE program, the Bee Health Guru app, the future of Jerry's electronic monitoring conferences and more! Kim returns in this episode with Bee Books: Old and New, reviewing a timely book by Richard Ball, Swarm Control. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Health Guru - https://www.beehealth.guru Kansas Dept. of Ag SAVE - https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/1013030-service-member-agricultural-vocation-education-save-a-pathway-to-farming-for-transitioning-service-members-and-veterans.html SAVE the Farm - https://www.thesavefarm.org Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We first met the Regional Beekeepers back in May of 2020. Then twice a year since, we've made a point to catch a chat with them to talk about their bees, their challenges, their successes and plans for the next six months. This time, we move from west to east. First we meet Paul Longwell from Olympia, WA. A master beekeeper. He maintains AŽ Hives, Long Langstroth hives, and standard Langstroths. Next stop is along the western slope of Colorado where we meet up with commercial beekeeper, Ed Colby. Ed is a regular here on the podcast reading portions of his book, Tales from the Bottom Board. Next stop is just east of Akron, Ohio, where we check in with Tracy Alarcon. Tracey has years of experience keeping bees and raising his own queens. He's even been the county bee inspector. So he's seen all the good and bad. Fortunately, most of the bad has been with other's colonies! Last stop on the trip is in Locust, North Carolina where we meet up again with chemical free beekeeper, Mark Smith. Mark is building his chemical free apiary using no outside bees since 2011. He posts regularly on Instagram under Flatwoods Bee Farm. We invite you to join us and compare your story to theirs. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Happy Earth Day… week. Earth Day is this Friday, April 22… and in recognition of that day, we've invited Dr. Jonathan Lundgren back to the show to talk about his work at Blue Dasher Farm and with the Ecdysis Foundation's research on regenerative agriculture and soil conversation. We first learned of Jonathan in the Peter Nelson film, The Pollinators. If you have not seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it online at your earliest opportunity… if only for the photography alone! Peter has been a guest on the podcast a couple of times, as well. Jonathan's and the Ecdysis Foundation is working to show that regenerative agriculture is ultimately less expensive and healthier for the soil, crops and bees. Yes bees! Bees that forage on farmlands using regenerative agricultural practices are showing to be more resistant to varroa mites and therefore healthier! It makes sense, since the bees tend to be less stressed by agricultural chemicals and have varied foraging opportunities – all contributing to a healthier colony, able to ward off varroa! Research will continue as part of the 1,000 Farm Initiative. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: The Ecdysis Foundation - https://www.ecdysis.bio Blue Dasher Farm - https://www.bluedasher.farm 1000 Farm Initiative - https://www.ecdysis.bio/featured-project Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week, Kim is back and we talk with Dr. Erica Shelley. We find out what her research organization, Best For Bees, Ltd. does, and learn about their latest discoveries that will make your bees safer than you can imagine. Best for Bees performs beekeeping field work for honey bee researchers. Their latest project is working with Dr. Peter Kevan in developing equipment that will successfully make api-vectoring a beekeeping tool. Did you know that there are a multitude of soil borne fungi that make their living by eating mites and other tiny soil creatures? This new technology will isolate these soil-borne fungi, then using equipment they have developed, have bees move inert fungi into a beehive (this is the api-vectoring part of the solution), where they will become active in the friendly environment of a hive, then will find and eventually devour varroa mites, without harming the bees, the honey, the wax or the hive in any way. It's an innovative hive entrance/exit device and it is one cool piece of beekeeping equipment. This bee vectoring technology (that is bees moving something into a hive) can be used to protect the hive from any number of pests and predators without the issues of toxins in the hive, resistance by the mites and others to chemicals, and remain as safe as can be for the bees, the beekeepers and those who consume our products. Plus, her team has developed a very innovative entrance device that can control traffic at the entrance, can be used to reduce or enhance traffic and protect the hive from all manner of exterior pests and predators. ProtectABee is something every beekeeper will want to have. Take a look at how this works and where you can get one, or more. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Best for Bees website - https://www.bestforbees.com ProtectaBee, More than a Hive Entrance - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protectabee-all-in-one-adjustable-hive-entrance#/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Andony Melathopoulos, an entomologist with the Oregon State University Agricultural Extension Service, returns to Beekeeping Today Podcast to talk to us about pesticides and how beekeepers can help mitigate the risk to their bees by understanding label on a pesticide container. The first challenge is to actually see and read the fine print. The second is to understand the fine nuances of the wording. Andony gives us a test in reading the label. Listen in and see how well you do! After the discussion on pesticides and labels, Andony discusses the Oregon Bee Atlas and the Oregon Certified Master Melittologist program. The Bee Atlas has set the goal of identifying every bee in the State of Oregon. They've developed a largest database of its kind in the United States. Accordingly, they have developed a certification program in order to help educate those who have the interest and drive to take their understanding 'to the next level' through a structured learning program. Blueberries pollination is big business in Oregon, but there is trouble hidden there. Besides the low rates for hives – especially given the record fuel prices – European Foulbrood lurks in the fields. Why do honey bees experience more EFB coming out of blueberries than any other crop? Is there an answer? Finally, Androny talks about his podcast, PolliNation. In PolliNation, Andony talks with researchers, land managers and citizens who work to improve the health of all pollinators. Also in this episode, Ed Colby stops by with a tale from his stay with the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushenko and his family, while at the 2013 Apimondia Congress. Check out Ed's book, A Beekeeper's Life. Tales from the Bottom Board. All in all, a big episode, guest co-hosted by Honey Bee Obscura Podcast's Jim Tew! Join us! Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Oregon Bee Atlas - https://extension.oregonstate.edu/bee-atlas Oregon Extension Service: Get to Know the Label - https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/em8841 Oregon Certified Master Melittologist Program - https://extension.oregonstate.edu/bee-atlas/becoming-certified-master-melittologist PolliNation Podcast - https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/pollination-podcast Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week, we invite Geoff Williams and Mikayla Wilson from Bee Informed Partnership to talk with us about their 2022 Loss and Management Survey! It kicks off in April - in just a few days! The Bee Informed Partnership was started in 2007 by the Apiary Inspectors of America as a non-profit organization with the goal to improve honey bee colony health and survivorship in the United States. The Colony Loss and Management Survey is one of BIPs longest running programs. BIP defines "Colony Loss" as as a turn-over rate, as high levels of losses do not necessarily result in a decrease in the total number of colonies managed in the United States. This is often misinterpreted that the 'bees are disappearing'. Beekeepers should be able to correct this while talking with non-beekeepers. Geoff and Mikayla talk about this year's survey and how you can participate, whether you are a commercial, sideliner or hobby beekeeper. BIP has other programs which Geoff and Mikayla discuss, including the Tech Transfer Program, and the Sentinel Apiary Program (which is still accepting participating beekeepers until April 24th) and how you can support BIP without sending a dime. BIP is part of Amazon Smile where 0.5% of your purchase is donated to a non-profit charity of your choice. Make BIP your charity of choice! Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Informed Partnership - https://beeinformed.org BIP 2020-21 Survey Results by State - https://research.beeinformed.org/loss-map/ BIP Sentinel Apiary Program details - https://beeinformed.org/citizen-science/sentinel-apiaries/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com We welcome HiveAlive back as an episode sponsor. HiveAlive is the #1 liquid feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. HiveAlive has been proven to increase bee strength, produce more honey, improved bee gut health and improved overwinter survival. Ask about HiveAlive and new HiveAlive Fondant & Pollen Patty at your local beekeeping store or visit the website www.usa.hivealivebees.com for more information. This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

On today's episode, we invite back friend of the podcast, James Wilkes to talk about the latest updates and changes to the HiveTracks: the Beekeeper's Companion, which has grown beyond being just a great hive management application for your mobile device. We also talked about the exciting new international program he and our other two guests, Laura Becker and Sarah Denton are working on to localize the Beekeeper's Companion app for women beekeepers in Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, and Lebanon. In those developing countries, beekeeping is more than a hobby, it is a means to a better livelihood in the face of climate change. The AID-CSB projects localize the Beekeeper's Companion app to incorporate traditional and local beekeeping knowledge along with weather data to help beekeepers monitor and manage their hives. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HiveTracks - https://www.hivetracks.com HiveTracks Blog in Uzbekistan visit - https://www.hivetracks.com/post/we-spent-7-days-working-with-women-beekeepers-in-uzbekistan-here-s-what-we-learned ICARDA Blog on AID-CSB in Uzbekistan and Ethiopia - https://www.icarda.org/media/blog/ai-driven-climate-smart-beekeeping-ethiopian-and-uzbek-women AID-CSB Advisory & Extension Project in Lebanon - https://www.weltohnehunger.org/innovative-ai-driven-beekeeping-app.html Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com We welcome HiveAlive back as an episode sponsor. HiveAlive is the #1 liquid feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. HiveAlive has been proven to increase bee strength, produce more honey, improved bee gut health and improved overwinter survival. Ask about HiveAlive and new HiveAlive Fondant & Pollen Patty at your local beekeeping store or visit the website www.usa.hivealivebees.com for more information. This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Today, we invite back Brian Peterson-Roest from Bees In The D. Bees In The D is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a cooperative effort between residents, schools, organizations, and businesses in the city of Detroit and Southeast Michigan to contribute to both the health of honey bee colonies and native pollinators, and the education of their importance to our environment. Brian was with us back in December of 2019 and introduced us to their program in S.E. Michigan. In this episode, he returns to talk about their updates and all their growth. Also, he discusses their plans to build the Michigan Pollinator Center to serve as the Bees in the D main location and to help educate the community about the importance of pollinators and honey bees. They run at 100 miles per hour. Listen to this episode and see if you can keep up with everything they are doing! Before we talk with Brian, we talk with Dr. Jeff Pettis, who is the current President of Apimondia. A couple of weeks ago, Apimondia announced that the 2022 Congress scheduled in Ufa, Russia, was canceled due to Russia's (senseless) invasion and war with Ukraine. Jeff joins us to talk about the decision and the announcement made on March 13 to relocate the 2022 Congress! Also in this episode, we welcome back Ed Colby as he reads story from his new book, A Beekeeper's Life: Tales from the Bottom Board. This week, he talks about levitation in line while at Apimondia in Ukraine in 2019! This is a packed episode! One of our longest yet. Let us know what you think by leaving comments for this episode above. Start a discussion! Thank you for listening! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bees in the D - https://beesinthed.com Apimondia - https://www.apimondia.org Ed Colby - A Beekeeper's Life: Tales From The Bottom Board - https://www.amazon.com/Beekeepers-Life-Tales-Bottom-Board/dp/1912271885/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com We welcome HiveAlive back as an episode sponsor. HiveAlive is the #1 liquid feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. HiveAlive has been proven to increase bee strength, produce more honey, improved bee gut health and improved overwinter survival. Ask about HiveAlive and new HiveAlive Fondant & Pollen Patty at your local beekeeping store or visit the website www.usa.hivealivebees.com for more information. This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

What should a beekeeper be doing this time of year - end of winter and the beginning of spring? What is different between the southern and the northern tier of States? Where do you start? What do you look for? What can you do? In today's episode, we invite long time Ohio State University extension beekeeper and educator and cohost of the Honey Bee Obscura Podcast , Dr. James Tew, to talk with us about his experiences and insights into this important and potentially critical time of year. Discussions include: What do you do with the old equipment? When do you retire it? How do you know if it is still serviceable? Is there a standard way to determine if the equipment will still work? Does it matter? Why does Kim sit on his hive bodies? You will be surprised by how these three beekeepers approach this question. (Or not... remember, three beekeepers... five ways of doing something...) Late winter, early spring inspections start the beekeeping year. How you start, definitely effect the rest of the year. Listen in and listen as three experienced beekeepers discuss their approaches to late winter, early spring management! If you like this episode, share it with other beekeepers. Do you have a different approach? Leave a comment on the episode page and start a conversation! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com We welcome HiveAlive back as an episode sponsor. HiveAlive is the #1 liquid feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. HiveAlive has been proven to increase bee strength, produce more honey, improved bee gut health and improved overwinter survival. Ask about HiveAlive and new HiveAlive Fondant & Pollen Patty at your local beekeeping store or visit the website www.usa.hivealivebees.com for more information. This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week we welcome back to the podcast Hailey Scofield and Nathan Oakes. They joined us back in November, 2019, when they were nominated as the one of the 18 finalists in the Empire State Development and Cornell University's Center for Regional Economic Advancement for "Grow-NY" – a food innovation and agricultural technology business challenge. They introduced us to their 'bee laser' for the automatic removal (or 'zapping') of varroa from the body of a honey bee. Jump ahead 27 months and they've moved from upstate New York to just outside Austin, Texas and are about to release their new product – the bee laser frame. They've gone through multiple iterations of the laser, refining their approach, placement, software and hardware. They've settled on placing the laser in the corner of the frame with an opening just big enough for the passage of a single honey bee. If the laser detects a varroa clinging to the bee, it gets zapped, explodes and dies. They honey bee is none the wiser and goes on about her business. If no varroa is detected, the bee is counted and that's it until the next bees passes through. At the end of the day, a beekeeper can get a report of the number of bees that passed through the frame and the number of varroa detected and the number of times the laser fired. Through the software the beekeeper can get an understanding of the colony's mite load. It sounds like science fiction. It is definitely science… but fiction? They say not! Listen in to the episode to learn more about the Bee Laser and check out their updated website for more information. Also on this week's episode, Northern Bee Books presents "Bee Books Old and New with Kim Flottum". This week, Kim reviews three books: Charles Dadant That Bee Man From Champagne, An Eyewitness Account of Early American Beekeeping: The Autobiography of A.I. Root , and Practical Small Scale Queen Rearing Using The Miller Method. All are good reads and provide great information on the history of beekeeping and practical bee management techniques. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Combplex (Now Bee Lasers) - https://beelasers.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In today episode, we welcome back Friend of the Podcast, commercial beekeeper, and longtime industry advocate, John Miller, to share with you his perspective of the 2022 almond pollination season. We caught up with John while he sat in the cab of his pickup at a stop in Central California. On John's last visit to the podcast, he talked with us about his plans for indoor wintering. Today, we asked just how that went. His take? Indoor wintering works with more healthy bees the result and it's going to change what happens every spring in California's almond orchards. Indoor wintering now allows for the inspection of colonies before leaving they leave the indoor facility in January. That is an equally big change in shipping bees to California. The result? More colonies are healthy in January and the California border inspection stations aren't overwhelmed with thousands of trucks backed up loaded with bees heading to the almond orchards each January. The almond bloom is about a week early this year up north and hive theft is still happening. Locked gates help a lot but don't stop it completely. There is a change underway in the industry as more commercial beekeepers are focusing on raising bees for pollination and later packages than in producing honey. Like a big game of 'whack-a-mole', tariffs and trade sanctions just push the problem of cheap honey imports to pop up from new countries. (Locally produced and sold honey is still valuable!) Listen in as John shares his observations of the largest movement of honey bees in the world from the cab of a pickup truck with today's guest. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we welcome Nicola Bradbear to the podcast for the first time. Nicola is the Director of Bees for Development. Bees for Development uses bees to reduce poverty through sustainable beekeeping and increase biodiversity. One of the most overlooked aspects of using beekeeping as an income source in developing countries, is that the beekeeper does not need to own land. In 1993, Nicola Bradbear drew on that foundation to start an organization to teach low to no income people in developing countries how to keep bees using locally sourced equipment, start businesses that can thrive locally, and develop global markets for their products. Bees for Development shares beekeeping skills with people in the poorest communities of the world, giving a reliable, sustainable income for life. Bees for Development has learned that simple, low-cost and local styles of beekeeping work best while keeping to the principles of natural beekeeping. Their programs are successful. Listen today to learn more about this incredible organization and Nicole who leads it. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bees for Development - https://www.beesfordevelopment.org Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

On today's episode, we are joined by Randy Oliver. If you don't read Randy's ABJ column and don't check in on his Scientific Beekeeping website, you've been missing some of the most up to date news on breeding mite resistant bees, and the newest, best mite treatment discovered so far. Randy discusses his breeding program producing honey bees that are totally resistant to varroa, mostly, but he's not quite ready to say they are completely resistant, but feels he will soon. Regarding his tests using controls for varroa, he has an organic product, that is easy on bees, tough on mites and you can use it with honey supers on. Only hitch – it's not registered. And that's his goal right now - you can help. Listen in on some of the best news on varroa we've had in 30 years. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Scientific Beekeeping Website - https://scientificbeekeeping.com Chickabuzz website - http://chickabuzz.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We have a special treat this week because Kim Lehman has come for a visit. Kim is an educator at heart and works with children of all ages. She started her regular column, All The Buzz In Bee Kids Corner, for Bee Culture over 20 years ago, and every other month offers puzzles, quizzes, drawings, educational bits and pieces, submitted photos and more aimed at grade school kids. She has a huge following of kids in her Bee Buddy Club, with members in every single state. Check out Kim Lehman this time, you might even get a sing along song. Also in this episode, we start a new segment called, "Bee Books: Old & New" sponsored by Northern Bee Books. In this new segment Kim (Flottum) who's not only an author, editor and book reviewer, is an avid antiquarian bee book collector for decades. He puts all this together, working with our newest sponsor Northern Bee Books, a new, used and antiquarian book seller in the UK, and every other week will offer his reviews of beekeeping books from authors who wrote 150 years ago, to those just released. Find out what you've missed, and what's new, right here every other week on Bee Books: Old & New. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Kim Lehman's Website - https://www.kimlehman.com/ Beekeeper's Lab on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631592688 Northern Bee Books - https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their sponsorship of Bee Books: Old & New with Kim Flottum. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. Check them out today! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular podcast featuring interviews with leading bee and insect researchers in the world of pollination, hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Today, we welcome James Watts from Whale Labs, in Australia. Whale Labs works on a variety of research projects, but today we talk with him about the honey bee venom collection and the commercial value of that venom. Whale Labs has developed a honey bee venom collector that is easy to use, does not harm the bees, and makes collecting bee venom fast, easy, safe and very profitable. Moreover, regular collections do not harm the hive, nor reduce honey production. The collector consists of a glass plate placed in at the entrance of the hive. Alarm pheromone is administered near the entrance of the hive to draw bees out of the hive. When bees start walking on the glass plate, embedded wires in the plate are made to pulse, or vibrate, which irritates the bees, that then sting the glass plate, ejecting venom. The barbed sting does not catch on the plate, so when the bees are empty of venom, they quit and return inside. The venom crystalizes and is easily gathered by scraping it off the glass plate. Raw venom in this form can be sold for $80 - $100 per gram. However, if it has the various components extracted, using an HPLC and a mass spectrometer (together valued at somewhere near $100,000), the principle component of this that is used in cosmetics and elsewhere, has a value of somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500/microgram, and one gram of venom contains about 200 micrograms of this particular valuable component. Whale Labs sells collectors, provides technical support, and the market for the collected products. Visit them at www.Whalelabs.com/au. Listen today. This could be your next profit generator from your operation. If you liked today's episode, subscribe/follow to keep up to date with the latest releases! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Whale Labs - https://www.whalelabs.com.au/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

On today's show, we welcome back Jay Williams of William's Honey Farm and South Hall Farms. Right off, Jay, who was with us in December, talked about preparing and entering the Good Food Awards contest for Honey Has WON this very prestigious award for this year. You heard him here first! This time, Jay walks us through his beekeeping operation, looking at the products he sells, the marketing and branding operation he has developed, and his work at South Hall Farm, near Nashville. Jay spends about 30 – 40% of his time actually managing his 100+ colonies, raising queens and harvesting products. Another 20% or so is spent on marketing the products his bees produce, and about 30 – 40% of his time is aimed at giving lessons and teaching, giving tours and otherwise using what he does to make money by sharing and showing. His philosophy starts with "What is your time worth?", and follows that with telling stories to get the customer involved, getting his message out, using social media, finding and catering to his niche market of local honey users, knowing your costs, staying ahead of the curve with bees, beekeeping and beekeeping products, being ready to fail but getting up and figuring it out, and making it all work together. His work at South Hall Farms consists of managing the pollinator gardens that surround the Southern Hospitality Farm and Resort, supporting the many native bees, birds and butterflies that visit these gardens, and taking care of the bees they have on site. When you are done listening to this fantastic marketing genius, great beekeeper and award-winning honey producer, you will be much better prepared to make it all work for you, too. Also in this episode, we welcome back Ed Colby as he reads story from his new book, A Beekeeper's Life: Tales from the Bottom Board. This time we learn a little about quarterback Terry Bradshaw and spring time management. Listen and subscribe/follow today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Williams Honey Farm - https://williamshoneyfarm.com South Hall Farms - https://southallfarms.com Good Food Foundation / Awards - https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/ Ed Colby - A Beekeeper's Life: Tales From The Bottom Board - https://www.amazon.com/Beekeepers-Life-Tales-Bottom-Board/dp/1912271885/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week we've invited Rich Morris, of Broodminder, to provide updates on what's new and what's improved with his Broodminder Hive Monitoring sensor collection. Broodminder has been in the hive monitoring business for many years and Rich states they are starting to design and release their second and third generations of products. For starters, Broodminder has completely reworked their mobile app so it is faster, shows more information and is easier to use. This past year, they introduced a "SubHub", an information collector for up to 50 hive sensors in a beeyard. The beekeeper can then make one quick stop at a yard and download the data to their cellphone or iPad/tablet to the Internet. They've also reworked the scales this year so now you can use the original simple front-end scale, or use a scale that weighs the whole hive. A scale can come assembled, or unassembled for you to do yourself. You'll save money with this new scale. The BeeCounted web page is becoming very useful for Broodminder users, and beekeepers anywhere. A map shows where Broodminder users are by zip code, and you can look at the data from any of these users, yourself included, and see if your hives are similar, or different than nearby hives, which may give you a heads up on trouble. That's just a start of the products designed and built for beekeepers by beekeepers. They also have a variety of cellular and WiFi enabled collectors that keep your hives connected so you can monitor them from wherever you are at any given moment If distant hive monitoring, or even backyard hive monitoring is important, or you're just curious as to what's going on inside, you will be interested in what this episode! Listen and subscribe/follow today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Broodminder Website - https://broodminder.com BeeCounted - https://www.beecounted.org BeeCounted Map - https://map.beecounted.org/citizen_science/embedded_map One of Jeff's Monitored Hives on BeeCounted - https://map.beecounted.org/hive/summary/DQ0O Bee Hive Monitoring Group on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/471604447501945/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This is the third time we've talked with Sven-Erik Spichiger about the Asian Giant Hornet in the state of Washington, and this time he shares some history, enlightens us with the discoveries they've made so far, what they managed to accomplish this past season, and what they plan for next year. All this to keep this pest, or better, get rid of this pest, before it becomes established in the Pacific Northwest. The good folks in Washington have spent their third season searching for that newest pest – sometimes called The Murder Hornet – with some amount of success, and a lot of good experience and a host of new techniques for finding, capturing and measuring what this new pest is up to. The AGH was originally found in British Columbia in 2019. In 2020 Citizen Scientists, USDA, APHIS and Washington State Entomologists set up thousands of traps in the northern part of the state. They captured one nest. But they began to refine their equipment, condense the areas they were looking in, and get more people interested in helping them find more. In 2021 they again set thousands of traps and caught several, used better tracking tags for live captured hornets, and began looking at where they were living, and what they were eating. Alder trees are popular, but so are holes in the ground at the base of trees. The researchers observed the AGH favored the paper wasp nests of the PNW. The wasp nests are a great source of food, and figuring out how the AGH attacked, destroyed and then ate their wasp lunch was an interesting find. They also determined the WA State AGH was genetically related to AGH in Korea. In 2022, more citizen scientists will help out, and Washington researchers will worth with counterparts in Korea to study the native population of these creatures. This will provide better insight to the biology, diet, nesting habits and more, of the AGH of Washington State. Oops... sorry, we couldn't find the photo of Sven-Erik eating a larvae... dipped or otherwise. Listen today and FOLLOW today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Washington State Department of Agriculture Asian Giant Hornet site - https://agr.wa.gov/hornets Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Hey everybody. Kim and Jeff are taking the week off and will be back next week with a new episode. For this week's Holiday Reply, we bring you our talk with Dr. Sam Ramsey from April, 2021. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Thank you for listening and Happy New Year! --------- Dr. Samuel Ramsey is back with us again, looking at all sorts of questions than bother beekeepers, and working with smart kids and science! Sammy hasn't not let any grass grow under his feet since he was forced to return home from his research in Thailand studying Tropilaelaps mites (Tropilaelaps clareae and T. mercedesae) so we are ready if and when they arrive in the US. It turns out there is a very clever way to identify which species of Tropi-mite, as they call them in Thailand, is infesting a hive. Believe it or not, they actually "melt" the DNA of the creature and can ID them from what's left. That's a big step in the right direction for these nasties. While in Thailand, he also observed the Giant Asian Hornet, the "murder hornet" we now have poking into in Pacific Northwest. He worked with local beekeepers looking for nests, watching them destroy honey bee colonies and then harvesting the larvae of a destroyed hornet nest for a delicacy food. He also found out why some bees spread water buffalo dung on their hives to keep the hornets away. This is really a mind blower. Sammy's work on varroa and fat bodies didn't slow down one bit this year. They've uncovered that the female mite harvests certain proteins from the fat body and then funnels them directly into the developing egg without first digesting the protein rich meal. These whole, complete proteins are needed by the embryo to complete development. Now, how can that process be interrupted? That's the million-dollar question. Just imagine if the discovery leads to a control which doesn't involve putting poison into the hive… When Sammy was here last, he talked about forming his Ramsey Research Foundation, to replace the original "GoFundMe" site. Through the Foundation you can help support the work he's involved in - heading back to Thailand in the fall, working more with Giant Hornets, and finding out how to quit putting poison in our beehives. Check out the Foundation, and see if you, or better your beekeeping group, can help make this a better world for us, our bees, and beekeepers everywhere. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Ramsey Research Foundation - https://www.ramseyresearchfoundation.org Sammy's Website - https://www.drsammy.online Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Happy Holidays Everybody! Come on along and listen in to Jeff and Kim and Kirsten and Jim when they get together around the virtual Christmas Tree and talk about the Holidays, the good and bad for last year and what they hope will be going on next year. Kirsten Traynor, and her 2MillionBlossoms podcast moved to Germany this year when she took a new job at one of the best beekeeping institutes in Europe, LAVES Institute of Bee Science Celle. Moving in the middle of a pandemic was a challenge, but her new job was worth it. Her new institute is involved basically in 3 areas of bees and beekeeping. They produce honey, and this year had a bumper heather crop. They also are involved in honey analysis, and in teaching the next generation of commercial beekeepers. Spring this year was cold and wet and Kirsten is hoping for better weather this coming spring. Kim (Beekeeping Today Podcast & Honey Bee Obscura) had a fairly good year with the bees, and so far, winter has been mild and easy. He did miss a lot of meetings this past year and hopes that changes this coming year. His connections in the beekeeping world are troubled with the current price of honey, and producing more bees and less honey seems like a better way to go. Jim Tew (Honey Bee Obscura) spent quite a bit of time wrestling with mite issues and queen issues this year, and hopes to be better prepared next season. He also is coming to grips with the fact that lifting 70-pound boxes of honey over the top of his head might not be the best thing any more, so downsizing his bee box size may be in his future. Jeff (Beekeeping Today Podcast) is still learning about the weather in the Pacific Northwest, which is cooler and wetter than his previous beeyards in Ohio and Colorado. He's looking to get better at figuring out how to keep his bees warmer and drier next year. Not to mention, keeping all three of podcasts up and running and getting better. The group is working on getting a regular newsletter out starting soon. They hoped it would be early December, but that obviously didn't work, but it's getting closer. Stay tuned, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT GROWING PLANET MEDIA!! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: 2 Million Blossoms podcast - https://2millionblossoms.com/thepodcast/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Joining the podcast today is Stephanie Bruneau, co-author of the new book, "Common Sense Natural Beekeeping." Stephanie Bruneau and our very own Kim Flottum, recently released this new book with Quarry Press. We talk with the authors about the basics of Natural Beekeeping and the role a beekeeper has to take to stay as natural as possible – all while aiding and guiding the colony so it stays healthy. For their latest work, Kim's desire to not put poison in a beehive is mirrored by Stephanie's. So to deal with the many pests and diseases bees encounter, a variety of management practices are used, and types of hives are described. According to Stephanie and Kim, this is where the "common sense" part comes in. Sound management, no chemicals, adequate housing, good nutrition, local stock and attention to detail, when combined by the bees and the beekeeper, add up to Common Sense Natural Beekeeping. Stephanie is also the author of The Benevolent Bee, looking at working and using honey bee products. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Common Sense Natural Beekeeping - https://smile.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Natural-Beekeeping-Bee-Friendly/dp/1631599550/ The Benevolent Bee - https://smile.amazon.com/Benevolent-Bee-Remedies-techniques-propolis/dp/1631592866/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Dr. Caydee Savinelli leads the Honey Bee Health Coalition's task force on Minimizing Pesticide Risk For Honey Bees. Caydee is a passionate entomologist and pollinators of all kinds are a big part of her life, so she has been very instrumental in helping the HBHC develop its best management practices for pesticide protection. Caydee stresses that both beekeepers and farmers need to understand the risks of pesticides to honey bees and works with both pesticide manufacturers and farmers so the labels are fully understandable. Good pollinator stewardship boils down to good communication between pesticide manufacturers, farmers, and beekeepers, knowing bee habits, understanding an awareness of local laws, and putting all of these together for a Best Management Practice so farmers and honey bees can both thrive. In addition to Caydee, one of our regional beekeepers and Bee Culture regular contributor, Ed Colby sends us a reading from his new book, A Beekeeper's Life - Tales from the Bottom Board, available on Amazon or wherever you buy your books! All-in-All, we have a great episode for you this week! Listen today and learn how the Honey Bee Health Coalition is working to make the world safer for honey bees and all pollinators! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org HBHC - Part 1: Intro & Overview w/Matt Mulica - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s3e44 HBHC - Part 2: Pests & Predators w/Mary Reed & Dr. Dewey Caron - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s4e4 HBHC - Part 3: Forage & Habitat w/Pete Berthelsen - https://www.beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/s4e13 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott. Ed Colby's short, "Possums in the Outhouse", Brightside Studio Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Joining us is Bee Culture contributor and author, Ross Conrad. Ross is a commercial beekeeper in Vermont. He runs a small commercial operation running about 100 colonies and all are treatment free. He makes honey, does a bit of pollination and does a good bit of teaching. He is the author of Natural Beekeeping, a serious look at keeping bees without the use of disease or pest management chemicals, which is in its second edition. Just released is his new book, The Land Of Milk And Honey, with Bill Mares, a history of beekeeping in their home state of Vermont. Beekeeping in Vermont excels in overwintering and queen production that will help beekeepers anywhere. Today Ross talks about the pricing scandal around the EpiPen, the syringe used to apply epinephrine to people experiencing extreme allergic reactions to a variety of substances including honey bee venom. Extreme price increases have made these difficult, if not impossible to obtain by beekeepers to have around to prevent problems. Ross then talks with us about beekeeping history from several pioneers of Vermont beekeeping and ties it into his newest book with Bill Mare. Vermont's history is full of fascinating beekeepers, unique to the area, who's management techniques have touched us all. Listen to this noted Natural Beekeeper today on Beekeeping Today Podcast! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Ross' website - www.dancingbeegardens.com EpiPen Class Action Lawsuit (Filing date has passed) - https://www.epipenclassaction.com Natural Beekeeping Book by Ross, on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Beekeeping-Organic-Approaches-Apiculture/dp/1603583629/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a regular newsletter and podcast focused on stories and photos of all pollinators and hosted by Dr. Kirsten Traynor. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we invite Cliff Struhl on the show to talk about his company, Bee Smart Designs. Cliff actually got his start in manufacturing beekeeping equipment because his wife didn't want cinder blocks and 2x4's as hive stands in her very well-designed gardens around their home. Cliff, whose business is manufacturing plastic, blow molded sidewalk sign holders, figured out a way to make an appealing hive stand using the existing technology of making his sign stands. And he was off! After his hive stand, Cliff designed a feeder that now solves many problems of the typical Boardman and Miller feeders. It's very close to the bees, they can't get up into it, it has no drip and is easy to fill. Going to the bottom board was next, with a stainless screen that won't rust, and built-in mouse guard, robbing screen and entrance reducers that makes it an all-in-one bottom. His insulated inner cover has a foam layer on top for warmth, has an opening for a top entrance if needed, or closed so no ventilation for warmth. Moisture is condensed on walls for the bees, but the top stays warm….much like a tree. Coming soon is a magnetic hive tool holder belt, to keep you from losing your tool somewhere in a bee yard. And for everybody, Pry Point, to make separating sticky boxes much easier. All of these are available from nearly every bee supply dealer (including our sponsor – BetterBee) and you can locate one near you by going to BeeSmart Designs web page. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Smart Designs - https://www.beesmartdesigns.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Last year, we talked with The Good Food Foundation about their annual honey contest (S3, E14). This year, we bring you four of the 15 finalists to talk about their entries and their beekeeping operation. Winners will be announced the week of the episode's release! Honey for the contest is entered and only compared to honeys from the region it is produced and it can be liquid, comb or infused. The honey must be entered by the beekeeper who produced it. The judges look at how it was produced and harvested, overall animal husbandry, and is there any community engagement with bees, beekeeper and the people in their world. First up in the episode, we have Max Kirwin, the Good Food Awards leader, who oversees all 18 committees for this contest. Joining Max is Mark Carlson, the Honey Committee chair who will share what it is they are looking for in each honey submission category. Mark was with us back in August of 2020 in our first episode with the Good Food Foundation. We have 4 very different finalists this time. Jay Williams of Williams Honey Company and South Hall Farms, is working to build a destination luxury resort dedicated to sustainability, agricultural, culinary discovery and the circle of life. Of course, honey and pollinators play an important role to the theme. Ethan West, of Republic of Vermont Honey Company, they manage a treatment free apiary with bees spread out over 3 counties in the Champlain Valley of Vermont and the Green Mountains. Dustin Vanasse, along with Michael Gilbert of Bare Honey, produces honey in solar panel yards all over California. Dusty has learned the tricks of Solar Based Beekeeping, utilizing the acreages and space around these large installations to produce infused honey, using organic and local peppers for his flavoring. Before they left, we asked each of these finalists give tips on how to get ready for next year's competition. A whole lot of good advice in this final segment. Think you have good honey? Then think about entering next year's Good Food Awards. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Good Food Foundation - https://goodfoodfdn.org Good Food Award - Honey Competition - https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/categories/honey/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We welcome back Dr. Brittney Goodrich, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis. Brittney joined us originally on October 5, 2020 to talk about her research on the importance of Almond Pollination contracts. Today, she joins us to discuss just how the success (or lack thereof) of the almond pollination season impacts the rest of the nation's beekeeping for the year. Here is a truth: No matter how large or small your operation is this year, almond pollination in California is going to have some effect on how your season goes. Almond pollination uses about 90% of available honey bee colonies each spring, and many, many of those colonies are used later for queen production, package shaking, nuc and split production and make in honey later in the season. Almond pollination affects colonies in orchards in many ways. Primarily - colony health. Almond pollen is a rich source of food for these bees, so that helps, but because 90% of US bees are in just a few counties of California, every colony out there has a good chance of catching whatever any colony within flight range has . Almond season has the real potential to become a superspreader event. Almond pollination WILL affect your beekeeping next season. Be as ready as you can for all that can happen. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Brittney's Website with useful almond research information - http://www.brittneygoodrich.com/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

For this episode, we invite back our regular regional beekeepers to sit down with us and discuss how their season went, what surprises they had, what worked, what didn't and what they were planning for in 2022. In their discussions with each other, they talked about making comb honey, mead, honey prices in their area, swarm preventions techniques, and regional varroa populations. Mark Smith is from North Carolina. He's a chemical free beekeeper and has been for a decade or so. He is pretty isolated and relies on his own survivor stock for mite control. Tracy Alarcon lives in north east Ohio and is running about 10 colonies. He did good with early honey this year, but the goldenrod didn't produce like he thought it would. He makes mead and comb honey along with liquid honey, but keeps much of the liquid for himself. Ed Colby lives on the western slope of the Rockies, and his book came out this summer. Entitled A Beekeeper's Life. Tales From The Bottom Board. Each chapter is from one of his Bottom Board columns in Bee Culture magazine and is doing well. He experienced some drought this summer, the higher elevation beeyards did well. He runs about 70 colonies. Normally he sells spring splits, but next year is looking to expand so will keep most of those. Listen to our Regional Beekeepers as they discuss their years. Are they like you? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we talk with Jonna Sanders about AŽ hives (NA Beekeepers say "AZ". We learn today that it correctly pronounced "AH-shah". Jonna is a lifelong AŽ Hive beekeeper and sells AŽ hives in the US. Today we talk with her in depth on how beekeepers manage these hives. We talked with Regional Beekeeper, Paul Longwell back in May as part of our Five-Part Series on Different Hive Types, where he introduced us to the AŽ Hive. Slovenian in origin, these hives are inside a building or wagon and the bees exit their hives from openings on the outside wall or side. Beekeepers, however, go into the building or wagon and are able to open these hives from a 'cabinet door' on the back, so the bees barely notice the beekeeper's activity. When asked what's the best thing about these hives, the immediate answer is NO LIFTING! When the beekeeper opens the hives from the back inside the building, removing the frames to examine them is much like removing books off a shelf. They sit in metal supports so there is very little propolis, they are kept in exactly beespace distance, and they slide out very easily. Jonna talks about frame size, shape, bee escapes, pollen traps, the types of bees Slovenian beekeepers typically use, overwintering in a building, installing packages, the fact that you can examine your hives no matter the weather outside, and much more. Remember, no lifting. Listen today and an AŽ Hive just might be in your back yard next summer. In the episode, Jonna talks about her annual tour of beekeeping in Slovenia. Details are not yet available for a 2022 trip as the pandemic complicates international travel. Contact Jonna through her website to receive updates and announcements. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: AZ Hives North America - https://azhivesnorthamerica.com AŽ Hive Inspection - https://youtu.be/ws5nbLyfNiI AŽ Hives Group on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2134465946665350/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Imagine a completely automated beekeeping operation. Well, BeeWise has created the Bee Home, housing 24 colonies that is a solar powered, insulated, and completely automated for every beekeeping management task. Saar Safar, our guest today, was approached by a beekeeper that had a rough idea of what he wanted, and Saar put his own skills at mechanical and digital automation to work and BeeWise came to be. The Bee Home is totally self-contained and requires almost no beekeeper assistance. There are 24 colonies in each unit, 12 colonies on each side of the bee home that open to the outside. Inside the bee home box there is a space between the two sides that a robot occupies. It can move from front to back, and it can inspect each of the hives from inside. It removes a frame, examines its condition relative to brood, disease, food and more, and sends the data to the cloud where a beekeeper can make appropriate management decisions. Annual losses in the Beewise bee homes are less than 10%, which is a real plus. Labor costs to manage and supply food for the robot to feed colonies, or remove the extracted honey are minute when compared to traveling to remote beeyards, having to examine each hive and then managing it for survival. The costs are evolving, but at this time there is no initial upfront purchase cost. Then $400/month for each unit containing 24 colonies. That's $200/year for each colony with essentially no labor costs and less than 10% annual loss. Almond pollination will pay the rent, and the honey made is only a plus, along with the many extra bees available to split and sell. They've been at this for several years, improving and adding features and testing these units, and thousands of colonies have been managed in them, and it seems they have it down. Take a look at the web page and see for yourself. BeeWise. Completely automated beekeeping. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beewise - https://beewise.ag Marla Spivak on Wait What, "How The Bees Saved Me" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-bees-saved-me-by-dr-marla-spivak/id1472106563?i=1000538436515 Bee Blower - https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287174447 Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode, we talk with Steve Repasky about his book, Swarming Essentials, published by WicWas Press in 2014. Steve is in the middle of updating his book and we found him ready to talk about swarming in general, and what's new in the world of swarms that he's putting in his next edition. Basically, the biology of swarms hasn't changed much, although there seems to be an uptick in fall swarms in his part of the world. But what has changed is we now have a better understanding of honey bee biology. This helps the beekeeper make better hive management choices to help reduce the colony's urge to swarm. When a colony is in equilibrium, that is a laying queen, a healthy population, lots of nectar and pollen coming in and plenty of brood, life is good. However, change any of these suddenly and the equilibrium gets unbalanced and swarming can happen. We talk with Steve about how nectar management is critical to reduce swarming. This is why Steve uses only a single deep for brood and lots of boxes for nectar. Making sure most of the bees are close together and there is lots of room for incoming nectar is paramount in controlling this most common problem with keeping bees. Listen today. Swarming… what do you think? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Swarming Essentials - http://wicwas.com/project/swarm-essentials-23-00/ Beginner's Beekeeping Guide on Porch (Kim's article) - https://porch.com/advice/beekeeping-tips-experts Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Today, we talk with Dara Scott of Advanced Science out of Galway, Ireland, makers of HiveAlive. Off the west coast of Ireland grows a variety of see borne plants, commonly called sea weeds, that have evolved defenses against their biotic pests that live in the ocean. Bacteria, antifungal organisms and other biotic pests are well controlled by these seaweeds. Farmers have taken advantage of the defenses these plants have developed and are feeding sea weeds and sea weed extracts to their land-based animals to take advantage of these sea borne benefits against land-based pests. Land based pests generally have no immunity to the defenses produced by a sea borne organism, and the effect has been incredible for dairy, horses, fish and now, honey bees HiveAlive is a mix of several sea weed extracts, along with added lemon grass oil and thymol. Research indicates the extracts work very well to deal with spores of Apis cerenae, chalkbrood, and helps boost the immune system of the bees so they are better able to deal with the other pests haunting our bees at present. Moreover, the plants these compounds are extracted from are sustainable and renewable, so supply and over harvesting is not an issue. Listen as we talk with Dara about seaweed extracts and how you can leverage their benefits as part of your overall hive management strategy. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HiveAlive - https://hivealivebees.com/ Kim's Book Review: Crop Pollination by Bees. Vol 1., Evolutionb, Ecology, Conservatiobn and Management. 2nd Edition. By Keith Delaplane Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

This week we talk with researcher and author, David Aston about his book, Good Nutrition, Good Bees. It's exciting to see how much information on honey bee nutrition is becoming available. This is happening as both new research and looking at existing research in a new light. David Aston, and his coauthor and wife Sally Bucknall, have focused on presenting much existing information, along with some of their newer work in a unique format. Imagine, if you will, all of the things a bee does during his or her life. Starting with being a larva, pupa, then adult. Each of these stages requires a different diet, either in content, amount or timing. What happens if there isn't enough food, or the quality is below what's needed, or suddenly there isn't any at all. Then imagine the series of tasks an adult bee undertakes. Feeding larvae, raising queens, flying and foraging, making beeswax, dancing, laying eggs, mating, producing venom, and all of the rest of the tasks in their busy lives. Does the diet of a worker bee need to change as she matures? Once a queen starts laying eggs, how much food does she need to produce 1000, 1500 eggs a day? Does a bee know where to find the food needed to produce venom? What plants are fatty acids, lipids, vitamins, inorganic elements, sterols and all the rest found that are needed to do all the things bees do? And if you are feeding you bees, what do you feed them? And how much, and when? David Aston tackles all of these questions in his podcast and in his book. It is simply a wealth of information, so you can make sure your bees have enough good food, all of the time, for every bee in the bunch. Listen Today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Good Nutrition Good Bees - https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/good-nutrition-good-bees-aston-and-bucknall/ Tom Theobald's "Notes from the Beeyard" podcast - https://notesfromthebeeyard.buzz Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their suppor

Today we talk with Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman. Gloria is the Research Leader at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. Gloria and the researchers there are involved in several projects, but today we talked to her about just two that are both new and promising for beekeepers and their bees. Modeling honey bee nutrition requirements on a seasonal basis is an area that has not received much attention to date, as they have been for many other animals. It turns out that the pollens that bees collect satisfy those requirements on a seasonal basis. High energy in spring with large amounts of amines and fatty acids for brood rearing, less so in summer and more towards storage use in the fall for overwintering. This may affect pollen feeding, and pollen substitute formulas to optimize their diets at the right time. But there are both seasonal and regional differences in pollen quality, and what is being noted is that with climate change affecting the phenology of blooming dates, bees may not be able to get the food they need when they need it. Another project being studied is overwintering colonies in climate-controlled buildings. They are looking at how much food will a colony need to do this, what the population should be when they enter a building, and when should they come out of storage so that they are ready to build fast for early pollination work, or later for honey flows. In addition, they are researching the best time for a season's mite controls to be placed for optimum control and honey bee health. Along with this they looked at cost efficiencies relative to winter losses, feed costs, colony strength and labor and made some interesting finds relative to these costs. Listen in to hear more about this exciting research! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Carl Hayden Bee Research Lab - https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/tucson-az/carl-hayden-bee-research-center/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beek

Today, we pick up on the third installment of our exploration of the Honey Bee Health Coalition's programs as we talk with Pete Berthelsen. Pete runs the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund, a non-profit organization working to improve the habitat for all bees and butterflies, anywhere people can make it happen. They have projects in 12 states and are looking to get as many more as they can. They work with the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), trying to get seed mixes used on these 24 million set aside acres more bee and butterfly friendly, among many other projects. That means working with and coordinating activities between the USDA, seed company organizations, farmers, commercial beekeepers and others. The CRP has been in place since 1985 and has been successful in improving the soil, water quality of the land rented from farmers so it can be improved. Mostly, however, it is planted to grasses, and not pollinator friendly habitat. It's no wonder then that he's intimately involved with the Honey Bee Health Coalition's Honey Bee Nutrition and Forage program. Focusing on pollinator health and habitat is what he does, every day. The 12 states his Bee and Butterfly projects are in are prime locations for commercial honey production, the monarch butterfly migration route and very productive agricultural land. So, when all of the members of the HBHC sat down at the table – Ag Supply companies, conservationists, food producers and food buyers, commercial beekeepers, honey packers and a host of others – there was some uneasiness in the room. But as Pete puts it, to solve a problem as big as turning around modern agriculture, you have to be a lumper, not a splitter. All of the people involved have to be part of the solution. No one can advance at the cost of other's moving down. And Pete is working to make this happen for all the bees and all the birds, and better soil and clean water. Find out what more this arm of the Honey Bee Health Coalition is doing to improve the health of our honey bees, and butterflies, too. First, though we talk with Zach Techner of Cascadia Venom Collection. Zach recently stopped by Jeff's house to 'collect' a large Bald Faced Hornets' nest and a smaller in-ground Yellowjacket nest. This time of year, beekeepers are typically the first to receive calls to remove 'bees'… and they're typically not honey bees but hornets. Zach talks with Jeff about his full-time business collecting hornets for labs who use the venom and provides some information all beekeepers should know about hornets. It's an exciting episode so listen today. If you like what you hear, subscribe/follow, leave a review and let all your friends know about Beekeeping Today Podcast. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Honey Bee Health Coalition - https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org Bee and Butterfly Fund - https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org Cascadia Venom Collection - https://www.cascadiavenomcollection.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple

What on earth is a microsponge? And what do beekeepers do with them? In this episode, we talk with James Webb, CEO, and Nate Reid, Operations Manager at Beemmunity Labs on the exciting research and product development underway. They fill us in on a very creative way that our honey bees can now manage exposure to common agricultural pesticides. They have created a microparticle that is composed of a detoxifying treatment encapsulated in a protein shell that can be fed to your bees in a sugar syrup solution. This treatment detoxifies pesticides that are consumed by your bees in pollen or nectar and are then passed through their systems, then removed during their next cleansing flight. So far, it seems that any pesticide that they have fed to their bees has been neutralized at or very near 100%. Plus, you can use this during honey flows if you feed your bees a treated pollen patty. Instant protection, all of the time. If you are treating for mites, remove the strips before applying the the microsponge treatment. Other positive features are that you only need to feed every three weeks or so, but, if you live in an area where pesticides are applied often, you can feed just before spraying or treated seed is planted and ensure protection for the whole season with treatments every three weeks. Plus, it has a long, uncomplicated shelf life so storage is inexpensive. Finally, your bees can be safe from agricultural pesticides. It's getting better out there. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Beemmunity - https://www.beemmunity.co Effects of OAV on Honey Bees Effects of Oxalic Acid on Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) by Eva Rademacher, Marika Harz, Saskia Schneider Institute of Biology/Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 28-30, 14195 Berlin, Germany Insects 2017, 8(3), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects8030084 Sublethal effects of oxalic acid on Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae): changes in behaviour and longevity By Saskia Schneider, Dorothea Eisenhardt & Eva Rademacher Apidologie volume 43, pages218–225 (2012) Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your ques

Jerry Hayes' journey to become the current Editor of Bee Culture magazine makes him uniquely qualified to lead the A.I. Root Company's 149-year-old Magazine for Beekeepers. He started as a high school teacher in Georgia, but soon found that was not what he wanted to do, so he left that and began working in the plastic industry. That's where he met his first beekeeper and started this journey. He went back to school in Wooster, Ohio, studying commercial beekeeping under the watchful eye of Dr. Jim Tew. From there to the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Baton Rouge studying African Honey Bees. Then the Dadant organization offered him a job in their Michigan branch, but shortly John Root offered him a job as Product Manager for their bee supply business. Dadant countered and brought him to the Hamilton location, where he worked in product development and began his 40 years writing the Q&A Column for ABJ. From there he became Florida's Chief Apiary Inspector for a bit, then working with an Israeli company trying to develop a RNAi treatment for Varroa. Monsanto bought that company and Jerry headed in that direction and finally on to Medina, Ohio. Being Editor gives some insight into the industry he hadn't had before – what are the biggest changes, what's not changed, the incredible advancement of educational opportunities for beekeepers everywhere, and the rise of the internet as both a good and bad source of information for beekeepers. Working with writers is an ongoing job, but his contacts from all of his previous experiences is proving valuable as he knows almost everybody in the worlds of government and university research, the business of beekeeping, and the world of industry regulation. He guides several industry organizations, and works constantly to make his readers more environmentally aware of the world around them. Listen to the details of the journey Jerry Hayes took to get to the Editor's chair at Bee Culture magazine. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee Culture Magazine: https://www.beeculture.com Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount onl

Eugene Makovec has been Editor of the American Bee Journal for only a short time and isn't well known in the Beekeeping world. He is working to change that. He grew up helping his father keep the family's bees, so has a good background in the craft. He spent time building his career for a few years after graduating with a journalism degree, but when he came back to bees when his father was around to help him get started. When that happened, he began working with some local associations, drifting to the communication side and working on newsletters. As newsletter editor, he attended many local and regional meetings and he got to meet a lot of the industry leaders. Eugene was awarded beekeeper of the year and stayed active in the group. He pushed the state of Missouri to change the laws regarding home production and bottling of honey, for which the Association awarded him with a second Beekeeper of the Year. Dadant hired Eugene as editor of ABJ after long time editor Joe Graham retired and after transitional editor, Kirsten Traynor. He likes working with writers and has good advice for someone wanting to write for the magazine. He is gradually moving the magazine in new directions while maintaining much of what the magazine if known for: Common sense, practical information for all levels of beekeepers. You can reach him at [email protected] with questions or comments. And you can view past issues of the magazine at www.americanbeejournal.com. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: American Bee Journal: https://americanbeejournal.com Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. HiveAlive is the #1 feed supplement for honeybees worldwide. HiveAlive has been proven to give more bees, more honey, improved overwinter survival and improved intestinal wellbeing. It contains a unique blend of seaweed extracts, thyme and lemongrass. Whilst it is unusual for bees to be fed seaweed, the practice of adding seaweed to other animal feed is long established. Seaweeds are fed to animals for multiple benefits such as productivity, general health, gut health, immune function and nutrition. As well as providing multiple benefits for the bees, HiveAlive is super easy to use and also prevents syrup from fermenting. Simply add just 2 tsp of our concentrated formula per gallon of syrup. Due to demand from beekeepers, we have also created HiveAlive Fondant Patty. This gives all the benefits of HiveAlive in a ready to feed sugar fondant with added vitamins & amino acids. The patties are individually sealed meaning they won't dry out and are thin to allow easy placement close to the cluster. These patties are ideal for feeding colonies over winter and for emergency feeding of colonies. Ask for HiveAlive and our new HiveAlive Fondant Patty at your local beekeeping store or find it online at https://usa.hivealivebees.com/. Listeners of the podcast can claim a special discount online using the code "BTP" at the checkout. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guita

On today's episode, we welcome back friend of the podcast, James Wilkes, beekeeper, professor and Founder of HiveTracks. HiveTracks continues to evolve and grow from the 'simple' 2008 technology platform focused on recordkeeping for the beekeeper to an entire ecosystem of management decision making tools. In past episodes staring with Episode 007 we talked with James about the 'computerized hive' and then in Season 3, with James and Joseph Cazier, about the development of 'Bee-XML' as a means to standardize data recording and sharing within the industry. The HiveTracks team also continues to evolve and grow with James taking on the role of CTO allowing the new CEO to focus on the day-to-day running of the business, and James can put all his energies to the technology behind HiveTracks and providing strategic direction. HiveTracks is now about to roll out the next generation of the product under the name of "The Beekeeper's Companion". It's more than a recordkeeping app on your cellphone. It now incorporates a full featured, data driven decision making tool pulling in information from not only your bees, but from multiple data sources including weather, the local/regional beekeeper community, land use/area floral sources and blooming periods and a beekeeping calendar! All of this is to provide the beekeeper the best information for making health decisions for your bees, your colonies. Join us as we learn more about the future of data driven beekeeping using HiveTracks! If you like what you've listen to in this and any other episode, make sure to share this podcast with your beekeeping friends! Also, don't forget to subscribe and even leave a 5-star review!! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: HiveTracks - https://www.hivetracks.com Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow to Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode we talk first with Molly Martin, the coordinator of Bee City USA, and Bee Campus USA, both supported by the Xerces Society. The Xerces Society is as Pro Pollinator as any group can get, there's no doubt about that. Of course, our honey bees are probably the best-known pollinators, but there are thousands more out there – other bees of course, but butterflies, birds, bats, beetles, and a host of other creatures. It all began some years ago when Phyllis Stiles developed a program that cities, and then campuses could adopt that would enhance the environment of that city or campus to the advantage of all the pollinators that lived within its borders. The city or campus would work to develop additional habitat, reduce habitat loss, add to or develop an IPM program to reduce pesticide use, ensure that new plantings would be local, native and beneficial to pollinators, and work to make residents more aware of, support and nurture the value and the benefits of working with pollinators instead of against them. Phyllis worked on growing this program, and after several years began working with the Xerces Society to help grow it even more. Today, there are 266 total associates in this program, in 44 states, and the growth has not slowed one bit. Bee Associates, cities or campuses, must from a committee that includes officials and volunteers to make certain the goals of this organization are carried out, new directions are followed and existing programs that do not enhance pollinators are removed or modified. Xerces provides ample educational web sites, webinars, videos, signage, and additional support to the community so that the efforts of the city or campus not only continues to grow, but also continues to improve. Then, Jeff makes an unplanned visit to talk with the City of Olympia's project leader for their recent Bee City Certification, Amy Stulls. Amy shares the City's inspiration, plan, program and future of their Bee City designation. Amy is definitely someone to listen to if you are planning a Bee City certification for your town. Listen in as Molly and then Amy share what you will need to do to become a Bee City USA, or Bee Campus USA and help grow an organization the supports honey bees and beekeeping certainly, and all pollinators. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Bee City USA / Bee Campus USA: https://beecityusa.org Xerces Society: https://www.xerces.org Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow to Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Max Cherney is Director of Operations at Nectar Technologies and Dr. Rae Olson is a postdoctoral researcher at Washington State University. Together they work with Precision Beekeeping in Quebec, Canada developing a data driven app for commercial beekeepers to use to seasonally track not only individual colonies but entire beeyards, with each colony having an individual identity within that beeyard. Using GPS technology to identify a location, a beeyard, or a colony, can be tracked for an entire season. This can tell a beekeeper location differences as far as a host of variables is concerned, plus a long list of the results of management differences. For instance, at the beginning of the season, colony and beeyard analyses can be made to determine the status of the yard and each hive. Then when some of the colonies, each with an QR ID code are moved, the early information in the cloud can tell what differences exist later in the season without having to take notes, enter them on a spreadsheet and hope you can remember what you did when and to which colony. Data can be collected automatically when a yard is treated for varroa, fed, requeened with new stock, or other management issues. All you need is a cell phone with the app and you are set to collect. If you don't have a cell signal, the data is automatically loaded right to the phone and automatically downloads when a signal is found. The data is stored and can be analyzed later, adding information collected earlier in the season. This can show the beekeeper the long-term impact of different treatments, feeding schedules, kinds of feed, queen suppliers, local forage, local weather and more. Still in the development stages, Nectar is working with commercial beekeepers in several locations and using different management schemes to determine what data beekeepers will want and need, then what data the analysis team will need to collect to analyze the data collected. Right now, Nectar is working with beekeepers on a dozen or so data points, but the researchers behind the scenes are pointing to over 70 different data points needed to better analyze what is going on. Data analysis is based on a three-prong approach – providing an easy-to-use dashboard for data entry by beekeepers, determining exactly what information beekeepers want and need, and working with researchers to get the most out of treatments and location data. The future of beekeeping is here. Listen today! Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: Nectar Technologies - https://www.nectar.buzz Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/ Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: [email protected] Follow to Beekeeping Today Podcast today! Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC